The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 158
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Wayne Gard, who accompanied the Texas trail drivers from
San Antonio, observed in the Dallas News on May 7:
Interest in the tour was strong in most of the cities and towns it
passed through, especially in those in which local committees had
prepared historical programs. The local celebrations brought out
many points of trail history and were a spur to bringing to light
further information on frontier days.
Before the tour had completed its first two days, many were talking
about making it an annual event. Plans were afoot also to organize
tours of other historic trails in the Southwest. Especially mentioned
was the Butterfield Trail, which soon will celebrate its centennial.
The Texas part of this mail route from the Mississippi to California
extended from Colbert's ferry and Sherman west to El Paso.
Texas has scores of stagecoach trails, cattle trails, and other historic
routes that should be better marked and more thoroughly publicized.
Tours of them, made in connection with local or regional celebra-
tions, could do much to stimulate interest in heroic events of the past.
Such historic tours, calendared to avoid conflicts with school periods,
would appeal to thousands of youngsters. Organizations like the
Junior Historians, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts and the Campfire
Girls would find them an enjoyable combination of fun and learning.
With a trail boss like Pat Armstrong of San Antonio, any such tour
could be a jolly event, rain or shine. The participants could follow
the routes of the emigrant trains of covered wagons, those of the
freighters who hauled buffalo hides to the railroad and those of bow-
legged cowboys who guided herds of Longhorns to distant markets.
They could see the lone chimney where Comanches burned a set-
tler's cabin, the turn of the road where bandits held up a stagecoach
and the big tree whose branches the vigilance committee decorated
with horse thieves. For them Texas could become a state where one
not only sees farther but sees more.
As part of its contribution to the celebration the Association
published an attractive historical pamphlet that featured an essay
on the Chisholm Trail by Wayne Gard, the itinerary of the tour,
and a section in which the participants could register their
brands as a memento of the celebration. From this "trail log,"
which has become a collector's item of Texana, the following list
of the 1956 trail drivers was taken:
Pat M. Armstrong R. E. Nickens
Henry Mills Mrs. Ida Ohlenburger
Mrs. Nell Currie Archie Page
Mrs. Lucille Allen Oran Stephens
Mrs. Pat M. Armstrong Mrs. Oran Stephens
Tina Tietze Herff Moore, Sr.158
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957, periodical, 1957; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101163/m1/175/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.